This invention relates to a biological and chemical contamination filter which can be placed in the window of a building to protect the occupants in case of biological or chemical attack. The system is especially suitable for small buildings which do not warrant a separate, expensive filter system for protection from outside biological or chemical contamination.
There is currently a need for a low cost, easily installed air filter to protect from possible chemical or biological attack. The American Red Cross recommends that in the event of terrorist attack, that a residential user tape their windows shut to avoid any intake of air. The problem is that unless this is for a very short duration, the danger of suffocation from a lack of fresh air is very real. A person must therefore choose between being exposed to the harmful biological or chemical agent, or expiring from a lack of oxygen.
Currently available building gas filtration systems generally contain multiple parts which must be custom manufactured, assembled and fit together making a unit which is expensive to manufacture, maintain and operate. There is a need for a system which can be quickly installed, operated and maintained.
Historical attempts to address some or all of the above limitations are reflected in the following prior art:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,266,490, Aug. 16, 1996, Klinger et. al., United States (US) is a pocket respirator which can be carried with the person. Such a solution is not conducive to protecting a number of persons working or living inside a structure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,452,241, Jun. 5, 1984, Sarnoff, United States (US) is a resuscitating system for a plurality of persons using cartridges. The purpose of the instant invention is to prevent having to resort to resuscitation by protecting the occupants of a building prior to exposure.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,278, Feb. 3, 1987, Barry, United States (US) is an emergency air access system placed in a window sill. The major disadvantage of this system is that to use it an occupant must breath through a tube. If there are more occupants than breathing tubes, this system will not be able to protect all of the occupants in the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,381, Mar. 19, 1991, Mueller, United States (US) is an example of a typical window fan which can be installed in a window. Although it can provide fresh air for the occupants of a building, it is not designed to protect the occupants from biological or chemical contamination outside the building.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,498, Jun. 1, 1993, Wong, United States (US) is a system to control the carbon dioxide level into a room for ventilation purposes but it does not have any way to filter the air from dangerous biological or chemical contaminants.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,221,520, Jun. 22, 1993, Cornwell, United States (US) shows an apparatus for filtering air being brought indoors, but the system uses a series of filter beds which would require custom design and would be complex and expense to manufacture and maintain.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,130, Dec. 13, 1994, Stern, United States (US) shows a face mask assembly with a fan and a replaceable filter. This system is designed for protecting one individual at a time and cannot protect an indoor room or interior of a vehicle with multiple occupants.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,584,286, Dec. 17, 1996, Kippax, United States (US) is an integrated breathing system which connects each occupant of an indoor room by a hose or tube to a window mounted system blowing fresh air into individual mask respirators. Only fresh air is pumped in and the system is not designed to protect from chemical or biological contamination outside. Further, the occupants must wear a bulky respirator and are physically constrained by the hoses and tubes leading to the window fan.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,665,143, Sep. 9, 1997, Jarvis, United States (US) is an air filtration system for a building typical of the complex systems currently available for protecting interior occupants of buildings.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,775, Mar. 2, 1999, Nur, is a protective mask consisting of a fire-resistant stretchable material with an access opening. As stated regarding previous prior art, it is inconvenient to require each occupant of an interior room to have a protective mask or head covering.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,131, Sep. 28, 1999, Hutchinson et. al., United States (US), is a biological warfare half mask which gives more freedom and comfort for the wearer, but still would be inconvenient indoors when voice communication to others would be desired or necessary.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,296,693, Oct. 2, 2001, McCarthy, United States (US), is a xe2x80x9cLife cellxe2x80x9d which incorporates a HEPA filter and Biological and Chemical warfare filters, but the system requires a custom made filter using specific materials and therefore must be designed, manufactured, and installed in a custom manner with the attendant cost, time, and effort that the current invention avoids.
This invention solves the above problems described in previous technology. It consists of an enclosure for a window fan which has mounted on the outside, sockets, threads or other standard coupling devices currently used by standard biological and chemical warfare gas masks. This allows the user to connect a currently commercially available gas mask cartridge onto a window mounted fan. This allows one to use gas mask cartridges which are available at this time by current manufacturers. This invention uses standard chemical filter cartridges which are easily removed, replaced and/or exchanged when necessary by attaching them or screwing them into standard size base adapters. This invention combines the standard gas mask cartridge concept with window fan technology currently available. Window fan systems are available which install easily into almost any size window. Combining these two systems provides a system enabling a homeowner or office user, as well as vehicle occupants, to increase their chances of surviving a short term chemical or biological attack.
The invention utilizes a sealed window mounted fan connected to a standard size gas mask mount and a standard size gas mask cartridge. More than one gas mask mount and cartridge may be used with more than one fan to increase the air capacity. A remotely detachable system is used to keep the gas mask canister""s protected and fresh until their use is needed. This system can use strong permanent magnets which when the interior ones are pulled away, electromagnets actuated by the user, or any means allowing remote detachment of the protective housing from the interior of the structure or vehicle.
There is a one way valve or valves to ensure that there is a flow of air in the direction desired. Different size screw on adapters can be used to mount different manufacturer""s gas mask cartridges onto the standard gas mask mount supplied with the unit. By the term xe2x80x9cStandard Gas Mask Cartridgexe2x80x9d is meant the cartridge used by a particular manufacturer which is standard for gas masks used by that manufacturer, or the size of mounting used by various manufacturers in a particular industry from which the cartridges are purchased or manufactured for.
The invention may further be designed to utilize multiple sources of power to ensure that the system can be used whenever desired regardless of the availability of various power sources. The system may utilize solar power, AC/DC power, hand crank power, disposable battery power and/or rechargeable battery power.
The system may also be connected if desired to heating units, air conditioning units, or temperature controllers to maintain the desired interior air temperature and humidity. For instance, a window mounted air conditioner could have the invention bolted over the intake manifold so that air brought into the air conditioner would be drawn through the invention first, thereby purifying the air as it was drawn past the standard biological and/or chemical gas mask filter. Similarly, a window mounted heater could have the invention bolted over the intake manifold so that air brought into the heater would be drawn through the invention first, thereby purifying the air as it was drawn past the standard biological and/or chemical gas mask filter. Alternatively, a combination window mounted heater/air conditioner could have the invention bolted over the intake manifold so that air brought into the unit would be drawn through the invention first, thereby purifying the air as it was drawn past the standard biological and/or chemical gas mask filter. The invention could also be self purging and be able to periodically flush out the chemical and biological gas mask filters if the fan means were reversible so that it could push air in a reverse direction through the filter, thereby purging it and extending the life of the filter units being used. If a High Efficiency Particle Filter (HEPA) filter was placed over the intake of the invention, the subsequent life of the standard biological gas mask filter in place would be extended as it would not become clogged or covered with filtered residue as quickly.
The system may also be connected to a biological warfare or chemical warfare detection system to be activated automatically if desired.
The system may also contain a flashlight system to provide emergency lighting as well as filtered air in the event of an emergency.